Forum Rules & FAQ


 

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Welcome to the Wine Lovers' Discussion Group, the interactive feature of Robin Garr's WineLoversPage.com! The software is simple, and the rules are few: We ask that everyone try to stay (more or less) on topic, and start a new thread if you want to change the subject.

All wine lovers are welcome here
We're glad you found your way here, and hope you'll want to participate with us in the intelligent discussion of fine wine and its enjoyment. You needn't be an expert to take part, we welcome all wine lovers, from novice to professional. Feel free to jump right in with a reply to any message you can see! Even if you consider yourself a wine novice, please don't be shy about asking the most basic questions. You'll find that even our most expert participants are generous about sharing their knowledge and helping relative newcomers learn more about this wonderful hobby.

Prime Directive One: No 'flaming'
We consider this forum a "flame-free zone." Personal attacks and insults among fellow participants are strongly frowned upon and may be removed from public view. However, we find that this issue rarely arises among our community, as civil, polite and intelligent discussion has evolved as a consensus goal for the group. This rule is not intended to discourage robust discussion, nor to forbid frank criticism as part of the intelligent discussion of wine-related issues. "No 'flaming'" says it all in two short words.

Prime Directive Two: No 'spam'
Also, while we welcome participants who are in the wine business, whether retail, wholesale, wine maker or whatever, we do ask that everyone avoid overtly commercial postings and business solicitations. "Spam," that is unsolicited commercial posts by non-regular participants, will be ruthlessly and quickly removed from the forum. This is not meant to discourage members of our community who are in the business from discussing their work, responding appropriately to questions, or informing the group of legitimate buying opportunities of general interest. However, because of occasional abuses, we do ask that participants avoid placing advertising material, links to outside Websites, etc., in your message "sig." Our "regulars" shouldn't have any problem discerning what's appropriate, but if you're in any doubt, please feel free to contact me privately.

Offers to trade, buy or sell wine among individuals should be posted on our Wine Sales and Trading Forum, a separate, moderated forum for which registration is required. Non-commercial wine lovers and collectors may register free; retailers and those in the wine-selling business are asked to pay a modest fee.

Opportunities for advertising are available on the Wine Lovers' Page; for more information, contact the host at wine@wine-lovers-page.com.

Please use your real name
Please use your real name and E-Mail address. Online personas and cute "handles" have their place, but most of us in this friendly group prefer the sense of community that comes with knowing who we're talking with. We're willing to make exceptions in cases where individuals feel a pressing need to be anonymous - contact Robin by E-mail if you'd like to discuss this - but we'd appreciate your consideration in following our community policy if you can.

Staying on topic and "NWR" posts
As stated, this group exists primarily for the intelligent discussion of wine appreciation and wine tasting among adults in a civil, friendly setting, and for that reason, we anticipate that message "threads" will stay largely on topic. At the same time, as we've grown into a large, friendly community of online friends, we find that some discussions do drift into non-wine topics ranging from basketball to geopolitics. By consensus, most of us feel that our community would be diminished if we ruled out this kind of "drift" entirely; but we do ask that participants take care to change the subject of a reply (it's a very simple process), and follow the convention of starting the subject line of [N]on-[W]ine-[R]elated messages with the acronym "NWR:"

Who Are We
"Who Are We" has become a longstanding community tradition in the WLDG, in which regular participants (and even newcomers who intend to become "regulars") post short biographical sketches. Click the link above or select WHO ARE WE from the toolbar at the top of the WLDG message board page to review other participants' bios and to enter your own.

Other handy acronyms
A few other useful acronyms have evolved, some common to online groups, others unique to this forum.

  • "TN:" at the beginning of a subject line indicates a [T]asting [N]ote. We strongly urge that you follow this convention, as the software "recognizes" the "TN:" character string and automatically copies all such messages to our searchable archive.
  • "NWR", as discussed above, signals a [N]on-[W]ine-[R]elated thread, making it easy for individuals who want to limit their participation to wine topics to skim over these messages.
  • "IMG:" If your message contains an embedded image, a GIF or JPG or whatever, we ask that you precede the subject with "IMG:" so those with slower browsers who don't want to wait for an image to download may skip it.
  • "QPR" or "(¢)" (a U.S. cents symbol) in a subject line or message text indicates that the poster considers the wine a particular budget bargain. ("QPR" is short for "Quality-Price Ratio").
  • Other online acronyms that you'll often see in messages as shorthand code to save typing include LOL (laughing out loud); ROFL (rolling on the floor, laughing); IANAL (I am not a lawyer); IMO (in my opinion); IMHO (in my humble/honest opinion); IIRC (if I recall correctly); AFAIK (as far as I know); and hundreds more, not to mention the countless variants on the "smiley face", from the simple :) or :-) (turn your head to the left to see the smile) to such type-art forms as @8-{)}== (a smiling, bearded Sikh wearing a turban and eyeglasses).

    "Censorship"?
    It is my intention to administer this group with a light hand, on the assumption that an intelligent community of adults is essentially self-governing. However, I reserve the right to delete messages for violation of any of the rules above or for any other reason that I consider appropriate. I will inform the group in a public message when I find it necessary to remove a message, and quite frankly, this problem only rarely occurs. But I reserve the ultimate, non-negotiable authority to remove any message when I deem it necessary.

    Copyright and the ownership of your work
    Under international treaty (the Berne Convention) you retain copyright to your own tasting notes and everything else you publish on Wine Lovers' Page and our Wine Lovers' Discussion Groups. We assert no claim on your intellectual property other than (1) obviously, the right to publish it online under your name, and (2) a "compilation copyright" to the body of material on Wine Lovers' Page, meaning, simply, that no one has the right to copy it wholesale without permission.

    No one has the right to republish, copy or redistribute your work without your explicit permission. If you feel this right has been violated (your tasting note, for example, turns up in a commercial publication or wine shop's "shelf talker"), you have the right to object. On request, I will also do whatever is necessary to help resolve the situation, including (1) contacting the offender on your behalf, (2) arranging for our lawyers to do so, and/or (3) subjecting the offender to negative publicity.

    In short, our policy is simple: I respect your copyright, and I will go out of my way to help you defend it.

    The Forum software
    For a detailed tutorial, see How to Use the Forum.

    This software is a distant and much evolved descendant of the classic WWWBOARD script, originally written in Perl and created by Matt Wright. Matt's original software remains available for free and is in wide use on the World Wide Web. You can get it as well as other scripts at: http://worldwidemart.com/scripts/.

    The software we now use on these forums is Eric Stauffer's proprietary StaufferBoard, and is commercially available from the author. To talk with him about licensing and installation of the software, please feel free to contact him directly at ebs@indy.net.

    How to Use the Forum

    Enter the WLDG Forums